Les Blank’s ‘Burden of Dreams’ Sees Werner Herzog Try to Push a 320-Ton Ship Up a Hill in the Jungle
On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Can Documentaries Make for Great Midnight Movies?
American documentaries are facing headwinds in awards. It’s not my area of expertise. But Anne Thompson’s predictions for the Best Documentary Feature race ahead of the 96th Oscars on Sunday explain the situation well.
“With the international membership now representing more than 20 percent of the total voters, this year all five documentary nominees were international,” Thompson wrote, tying the trend to numerous non-fiction films left without distributors at Sundance.
“As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies...
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Can Documentaries Make for Great Midnight Movies?
American documentaries are facing headwinds in awards. It’s not my area of expertise. But Anne Thompson’s predictions for the Best Documentary Feature race ahead of the 96th Oscars on Sunday explain the situation well.
“With the international membership now representing more than 20 percent of the total voters, this year all five documentary nominees were international,” Thompson wrote, tying the trend to numerous non-fiction films left without distributors at Sundance.
“As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies...
- 3/9/2024
- by Alison Foreman and Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
“For the most part, it is dramatic and fairly dark,” declares Alex Buono about the new limited category “Documentary Now!” has been moved to for the Emmy Awards. He continues, “There is a lot of murdery, dark, bleak storytelling in this category. I’m hoping there is room for a pretty silly absurdist comedy. His fellow showrunner Rhys Thomas adds, “We’re campaigning on a platform of joy, if you’re a fan of happiness you’ve got to vote for ‘Documentary Now!’” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
SEEEmmys shocker: ‘Documentary Now’ forced out of variety categories, into limited series categories [Exclusive]
“Documentary Now!” is an IFC and AMC+ comedy show, under the guise of a series featuring acclaimed documentaries. Dame Helen Mirren introduces each feature, which is a mockumentary parodying a real-life documentary. It means each episode has a distinct shooting style and story. The series was created by Fred Armisen,...
SEEEmmys shocker: ‘Documentary Now’ forced out of variety categories, into limited series categories [Exclusive]
“Documentary Now!” is an IFC and AMC+ comedy show, under the guise of a series featuring acclaimed documentaries. Dame Helen Mirren introduces each feature, which is a mockumentary parodying a real-life documentary. It means each episode has a distinct shooting style and story. The series was created by Fred Armisen,...
- 6/17/2023
- by Matt Noble
- Gold Derby
Maybe take these “historical” stories with a grain of salt.
Oscar winner Helen Mirren returns as the host for Season 53 of IFC’s “Documentary Now!” series, premiering October 19 on IFC and AMC+. “Stories that dare to tell the truth have never been more crucial to our culture,” Mirren says in the trailer. “Now, more than ever, the world needs ‘Documentary Now!'”
The “true” series will parody famed documentaries “The September Issue,” “Burden of Dreams,” “3 Salons at the Seaside,” “When We Were Kings,” “Gleaners and I,” and “Beaches of Agnes” across its six-episode season. A special sneak peek at the mock “My Octopus Teacher” entry stars “Fleabag” fan-favorite Jamie Demetriou as a filmmaker who “who forms a deep, emotional, and financially taxing relationship with a monkey” and gets shirtless in a moment of passion. Titled “My Monkey Grifter,” the spoof spans true crime and bestiality.
Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, “Succession” star Nicholas Braun,...
Oscar winner Helen Mirren returns as the host for Season 53 of IFC’s “Documentary Now!” series, premiering October 19 on IFC and AMC+. “Stories that dare to tell the truth have never been more crucial to our culture,” Mirren says in the trailer. “Now, more than ever, the world needs ‘Documentary Now!'”
The “true” series will parody famed documentaries “The September Issue,” “Burden of Dreams,” “3 Salons at the Seaside,” “When We Were Kings,” “Gleaners and I,” and “Beaches of Agnes” across its six-episode season. A special sneak peek at the mock “My Octopus Teacher” entry stars “Fleabag” fan-favorite Jamie Demetriou as a filmmaker who “who forms a deep, emotional, and financially taxing relationship with a monkey” and gets shirtless in a moment of passion. Titled “My Monkey Grifter,” the spoof spans true crime and bestiality.
Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, “Succession” star Nicholas Braun,...
- 9/21/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
U.S. director-producer Laura Poitras, who won an Oscar and an Emmy with Edward Snowden film “Citizenfour,” and recently took the Golden Lion at Venice with opioid epidemic pic “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” will be the Guest of Honor at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The 35th edition of the festival takes place from Nov. 9 to 20.
Poitras will be honored at IDFA with the Retrospective and Top 10 programs, in which she curates 10 films. The Top 10 program includes reflections on political imprisonment (“Hunger” by Steve McQueen; “This Is Not a Film” by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb), incarceration and psychiatry (Frederick Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies”), and genocide (Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah”). As part of the Top 10, Poitras will be in conversation with several of her selected filmmakers during the festival’s public talks program.
In the Retrospective section, IDFA presents all seven films directed by Poitras from 2003 to today.
Poitras will be honored at IDFA with the Retrospective and Top 10 programs, in which she curates 10 films. The Top 10 program includes reflections on political imprisonment (“Hunger” by Steve McQueen; “This Is Not a Film” by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb), incarceration and psychiatry (Frederick Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies”), and genocide (Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah”). As part of the Top 10, Poitras will be in conversation with several of her selected filmmakers during the festival’s public talks program.
In the Retrospective section, IDFA presents all seven films directed by Poitras from 2003 to today.
- 9/20/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras will be guest of honor at the 35th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), running from November 9 to 20.
Poitras is currently on a packed festival tour with All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, which won the Golden Lion in Venice and is now an awards season contender. After Venice, the title screened in Toronto and has dates set for New York and the BFI London Film Festival.
As guest of honor at IDFA, Poitras will be feted with a retrospective and has also been given carte blanche to curate 10 films that have influenced her work and shaped her view of the world.
Her Top 10 selections include Steve McQueen’s Hunger, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s This is Not A Film, Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.
As part of the sidebar, Poitras will also conduct on-stage conversations with a number of the selected filmmakers.
Poitras is currently on a packed festival tour with All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, which won the Golden Lion in Venice and is now an awards season contender. After Venice, the title screened in Toronto and has dates set for New York and the BFI London Film Festival.
As guest of honor at IDFA, Poitras will be feted with a retrospective and has also been given carte blanche to curate 10 films that have influenced her work and shaped her view of the world.
Her Top 10 selections include Steve McQueen’s Hunger, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s This is Not A Film, Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.
As part of the sidebar, Poitras will also conduct on-stage conversations with a number of the selected filmmakers.
- 9/20/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Alexander Skarsgård, Nicholas Braun, French actor Liliane Rovère and others have joined the cast for Season 53 of “Documentary Now!,” IFC announced Friday. The channel also released a first look teaser as well as final details for two new episodes to round out the season.
Known for paying homage to the world of documentaries, “Documentary Now!” Season 53 will debut with on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 10 p.m. on IFC and on AMC+ the same day. New episodes will debut weekly on Wednesdays.
The two-part season premiere episode “Soldier of Illusion,” written by John Mulaney and starring Skarsgård, Braun and August Diehl, was inspired by the Werner Herzog-focused documentary “Burden of Dreams.” Set in the early 1980s, the episode follows a visionary German filmmaker (Skarsgård) as he tries to will his magnum opus into existence while working in the remote, punishing conditions of the Russian Ular mountains. Kevin Bishop, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Matthias Rimpler,...
Known for paying homage to the world of documentaries, “Documentary Now!” Season 53 will debut with on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 10 p.m. on IFC and on AMC+ the same day. New episodes will debut weekly on Wednesdays.
The two-part season premiere episode “Soldier of Illusion,” written by John Mulaney and starring Skarsgård, Braun and August Diehl, was inspired by the Werner Herzog-focused documentary “Burden of Dreams.” Set in the early 1980s, the episode follows a visionary German filmmaker (Skarsgård) as he tries to will his magnum opus into existence while working in the remote, punishing conditions of the Russian Ular mountains. Kevin Bishop, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Matthias Rimpler,...
- 8/5/2022
- by Carson Burton
- Variety Film + TV
Taran Killam as Benedict A. Juniper, John Mulaney as Simon Sawyer – Documentary Now! _ Season 3, Episode 3 – Photo Credit: Rhys Thomas/IFC IFC today released a first look teaser and final details from the highly anticipated 53rd season of Documentary Now!. The two-part season premiere episode, “Soldier of Illusion,” written by John Mulaney, and “Trouver Frisson,” paying tribute to the films of Agnes Varda, join previously announced episodes “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport,” “How They Threw Rocks” and “My Monkey Grifter” to round out the season. Known for lovingly paying homage to the world of documentaries, Documentary Now! Season 53 will debut with a two-episode premiere on Wednesday, October 19 at 10 Pm on IFC, and on AMC+ the same day. New episodes to debut weekly on Wednesdays. The upcoming season of the critically acclaimed comedy, co-created by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers and Rhys Thomas, executive produced by Lorne Michaels and produced by Broadway Video,...
- 8/5/2022
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
IFC is giving viewers their first look at the highly-anticipated 53rd season of Documentary Now! with an all-new trailer. Really the show’s fourth season, as Season 53 plays into the satirical nature of the Documentary Now! concept, the two-part premiere taking place Wednesday, October 19 includes the episodes “Soldier of Illusion,” written by John Mulaney, and “Trouver Frisson,” which pays tribute to the films of Agnes Varda. The installments join previously announced episodes “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport,” “How They Threw Rocks,” and “My Monkey Grifter” to round out the season. Documentary Now! is known for lovingly paying homage to the world of documentaries with the help of celebrity performers. Co-created by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas, Documentary Now! is executive produced by Lorne Michaels and produced by Broadway Video. (Credit: IFC) In “Soldier of Illusion,” Alexander Skarsgård, Nicholas Braun, and August Diehl star in the episode inspired...
- 8/5/2022
- TV Insider
IFC on Friday released a first look teaser of the 4th season of “Documentary Now!” — or in the show’s parody universe, the 53rd season — which finds Alexander Skarsgård as a Werner Herzog-inspired filmmaker slogging through the Russian mountains in the two-part season that premieres on IFC and AMC+ on October 9.
Skarsgård is joined by “Succession” star Nicholas Braun and August Diehl of “Inglourious Basterds” in the John Mulaney-penned ode to Herzog’s “Burden of Dreams.” Kevin Bishop, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Matthias Rimpler, and, series co-creator Fred Armisen will also star.
The new season also spoofs beloved late director Agnès Varda in “Trouver Frisson,” in which French actor Liliane Rovère stars as filmmaker Ida Leos, who is searching for “frisson,” the goosebumps that have always been her guide. Written by series producers Matt Pacult and Tamsin Rawady and co-directed by Micah Gardner, the episode also stars “Documentary Now!” alumni Gary Kraus.
Skarsgård is joined by “Succession” star Nicholas Braun and August Diehl of “Inglourious Basterds” in the John Mulaney-penned ode to Herzog’s “Burden of Dreams.” Kevin Bishop, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Matthias Rimpler, and, series co-creator Fred Armisen will also star.
The new season also spoofs beloved late director Agnès Varda in “Trouver Frisson,” in which French actor Liliane Rovère stars as filmmaker Ida Leos, who is searching for “frisson,” the goosebumps that have always been her guide. Written by series producers Matt Pacult and Tamsin Rawady and co-directed by Micah Gardner, the episode also stars “Documentary Now!” alumni Gary Kraus.
- 8/5/2022
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an ongoing correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.La Jauría.Dear Danny and Lawrence, By the time you’ll read this, the Croisette will be a distant place and a faraway memory. I’m writing my last dispatch from a press room that’s gearing up for the awards ceremony; another couple of hours and it’ll be crammed with people cheering, booing, and shouting, a pandemonium in the vein of Triangle of Sadness. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of final thoughts to share tomorrow, Lawrence; for my part, all I’ll say is that the 75th Cannes Film Festival struck me as a relatively underwhelming affair, especially when compared to more ebullient recent editions. The official competition proved particularly disappointing. There are films I look forward to re-watching as soon as possible (Cronenberg...
- 5/29/2022
- MUBI
Six of the most celebrated documentaries of 2021 reflect subjects that span the spectrum of fascinating subjects. They touch on a legendary filmmaker and conservationist, a broken police system in North America’s most populous city, an under-recognized civil rights leader, the stories of families displaced by a brutal civil war and one of the defining rock bands of the late 1960s. In a recent discussion, we got to hear what the filmmakers behind these docs thought about the current state of documentaries and some of their favorites in the genre. Gold Derby recently got to ask these questions with Dan Cogan (“Becoming Cousteau”), Elena Fortes (“A Cop Movie”), Betsy West and Julie Cohen (“My Name is Pauli Murray”), Megan Mylan (“Simple as Water”) and Julie Goldman (“The Velvet Underground”) during our recent Meet the Experts panel.
You can watch the film documentary group panel above with the people behind these five films.
You can watch the film documentary group panel above with the people behind these five films.
- 11/20/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
The director of Spencer, Pablo Larraín, discusses a few of his favorite movies with host Josh Olson.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Spencer (2021)
Jackie (2016)
Tony Manero (2008)
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary
Back To The Future (1985) – Tfh’s time-traveling quiz
Fitzcarraldo (1982) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Herzog guide
Burden of Dreams (1982)
Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972)
Paris, Texas (1984) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary
Barry Lyndon (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary
Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
Salò, Or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Theorem (1968)
Medea (1969)
Naked (1993)
Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Vera Drake (2004)
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Master (2012)
Phantom Thread (2017) – Dennis...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Spencer (2021)
Jackie (2016)
Tony Manero (2008)
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary
Back To The Future (1985) – Tfh’s time-traveling quiz
Fitzcarraldo (1982) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Herzog guide
Burden of Dreams (1982)
Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972)
Paris, Texas (1984) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary
Barry Lyndon (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary
Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
Salò, Or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Theorem (1968)
Medea (1969)
Naked (1993)
Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Vera Drake (2004)
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Master (2012)
Phantom Thread (2017) – Dennis...
- 11/2/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Cajun music’s most magical, unique aspect is how it creates joyous, raucous compositions from minimal instrumentation. Most Cajun bands consist, maybe, of a violin, an accordion, possibly a guitar, and not much more. Les Blank’s I Went to the Dance (J’ai Été Au Bal), which has received a glorious 5K restoration courtesy of Harrod Blank and Anthony Matt, encompasses an entire cultural tradition with notes, words, and dances. With an almost non-stop exhibition of different Cajun songs—some classic, others more obscure—as a backdrop to recounting the history of the region and its people, the director forms an inseparable bond between their lives and the music.
One interviewee discusses the inextricable connection between Cajuns and their music as being borne from the need to express themselves––their joys and sorrows, following a hard, long work week. The music, notable for its high-pitched, almost blues-like wailing vocals,...
One interviewee discusses the inextricable connection between Cajuns and their music as being borne from the need to express themselves––their joys and sorrows, following a hard, long work week. The music, notable for its high-pitched, almost blues-like wailing vocals,...
- 3/19/2021
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
From Ghostbusters to Flash Gordon to Troll 2, viewers are giving adulatory treatment to a growing heap of their film favourites. But can this nostalgia boom survive?
Documentaries about film-making used to fall into one of two categories. Either they were studio-approved puff pieces, typically found among DVD extras, or stranger-than-fiction accounts of productions spinning out of control: more breaking of than making of.
Today there is a middle ground where fans take care of the celebratory side, and movies don’t need to have suffered a painful birth to be worthy of attention. This new crop has been made possible by cheaper technology, as well as crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The rise of streaming platforms and the decline of physical media, which is where such films previously found a natural home, hasn’t hurt, either.
Documentaries about film-making used to fall into one of two categories. Either they were studio-approved puff pieces, typically found among DVD extras, or stranger-than-fiction accounts of productions spinning out of control: more breaking of than making of.
Today there is a middle ground where fans take care of the celebratory side, and movies don’t need to have suffered a painful birth to be worthy of attention. This new crop has been made possible by cheaper technology, as well as crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The rise of streaming platforms and the decline of physical media, which is where such films previously found a natural home, hasn’t hurt, either.
- 3/10/2021
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Ben Rivers's Ghost Strata (2019) and Now, at Last! (2018) are exclusively showing October and November 2020 on Mubi in the series Ben Rivers: As Time Goes By.Above: Ghost StrataOver the course of nearly two decades, Ben Rivers has been called many things: a portraitist, a documentarian, an experimental ethnographer—even, in his own words, an “accidental anthropologist.” Early in his 2019 film Ghost Strata, a tarot reader points to a less remarked upon feature of Rivers’s work: “All your movies are about you,” she says, suggesting an autobiographical through-line in a filmography rarely acknowledged for its personal aspects.While a rereading of Rivers’s entire body of work is a fascinating proposition, one might look to Ghost Strata and another film he shot the same year, Now, at Last! (2018), for evidence of how these personal elements have manifested in the British director’s recent work. In Ghost Strata, a diary-like...
- 10/21/2020
- MUBI
For his latest project, Shanghai artist Maleonn, a tireless creator of life-sized puppets and mechanical objects, is in a race against the clock, desperate to stage an autobiographical play about time and memory before his father succumbs to Alzheimer’s. The relationship between Maleonn’s abstract production, called “Papa’s Time Machine,” and his complicated feelings for a father at once inspirational and distant, is a delicate subject, but Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang’s moving documentary “Our Time Machine” handles it with sensitivity and insight. Maleonn’s wondrous creations are enough of an attraction on their own, but the film, which picked up the cinematography award in the documentary section at Tribeca, has many more layers to reveal about the legacy of Cultural Revolution, familial relationships, the agonies of love and loss and the circle of life.
On one level, Sun and Chiang have the makings of a...
On one level, Sun and Chiang have the makings of a...
- 5/15/2019
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...
- 9/13/2018
- MUBI
There have been plenty of great feature-length documentaries about filmmaking: American Movie, Lost in La Mancha, Hearts of Darkness, Best Worst Movie, Jodorowsky’s Dune, and Burden of Dreams immediately spring to mind. Now a new documentary aims to join those hallowed ranks. It’s called Memory: The Origins of Alien, and it’s an exploration of Ridley […]
The post ‘Memory: The Origins of Alien’ Documentary Explains How Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi Classic Came Together appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Memory: The Origins of Alien’ Documentary Explains How Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi Classic Came Together appeared first on /Film.
- 9/10/2018
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
Happy Friday the 13th. Making movies proves that Murphy’s Law is a real and horrifying thing. These 13 films were struck by chaos, misfortune — and in some cases even death, during their production. Some became massive blunders while others became cult favorites famous for their notorious development.
Over the course of the making of the Poltergeist trilogy, four cast members died. The most shocking was 12-year-old Heather O’Rourke, who died of septic shock at age 12.
No one was seriously hurt during filming of The Omen. but chaos seemed to surround everyone involved. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer had their flights struck by lightning on way to filming. Director Richard Donner‘s hotel was bombed by the Ira, and members of the crew were caught in a car crash.
Francis Ford Coppola was tempting fate when he decided to film Apocalypse Now during monsoon season. Big mistake. The monsoon destroyed multiple sets, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, and Coppola was so stressed he reportedly threatened to kill himself.
“The Exorcist” is one of the most infamous cursed movies of all time. Nine people died during the shoot, and it is said that a fire destroyed large portions of the set. The story of the film’s production is just as eerie as that of the film itself.
“Fitzcarraldo”
Dysentery. Injuries. Fights among the crew. Nothing seemed to go right during the filming of “Fitzcarraldo.” The story concerns hauling a boat over a hill, which the crew literally accomplished, but not without the same nightmarish difficulty as is depicted in the film. And in the end, director Werner Herzog looked as mad and overly driven as its hero. Check out the documentary “Burden of Dreams” for more.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”
Bad luck ran amok in Middle Earth during the filming of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” DVD interviews revealed that multiple actors and stuntmen suffered injuries while shooting the film’s elaborate fight sequences. The worst was Viggo Mortensen, who broke his toe and chipped his tooth while filming.
Read original story 13 Cursed Movies for Friday the 13th, From ‘Poltergeist’ to ‘The Crow’ (Photos) At TheWrap...
Over the course of the making of the Poltergeist trilogy, four cast members died. The most shocking was 12-year-old Heather O’Rourke, who died of septic shock at age 12.
No one was seriously hurt during filming of The Omen. but chaos seemed to surround everyone involved. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer had their flights struck by lightning on way to filming. Director Richard Donner‘s hotel was bombed by the Ira, and members of the crew were caught in a car crash.
Francis Ford Coppola was tempting fate when he decided to film Apocalypse Now during monsoon season. Big mistake. The monsoon destroyed multiple sets, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, and Coppola was so stressed he reportedly threatened to kill himself.
“The Exorcist” is one of the most infamous cursed movies of all time. Nine people died during the shoot, and it is said that a fire destroyed large portions of the set. The story of the film’s production is just as eerie as that of the film itself.
“Fitzcarraldo”
Dysentery. Injuries. Fights among the crew. Nothing seemed to go right during the filming of “Fitzcarraldo.” The story concerns hauling a boat over a hill, which the crew literally accomplished, but not without the same nightmarish difficulty as is depicted in the film. And in the end, director Werner Herzog looked as mad and overly driven as its hero. Check out the documentary “Burden of Dreams” for more.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”
Bad luck ran amok in Middle Earth during the filming of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” DVD interviews revealed that multiple actors and stuntmen suffered injuries while shooting the film’s elaborate fight sequences. The worst was Viggo Mortensen, who broke his toe and chipped his tooth while filming.
Read original story 13 Cursed Movies for Friday the 13th, From ‘Poltergeist’ to ‘The Crow’ (Photos) At TheWrap...
- 4/12/2018
- by Wrap Staff
- The Wrap
A Ciambra is a pretty amazing movie…it reminds me somewhat of Gemorrah, also filmed in Calabria and centering around a young man who wants to break with a tradition of crime. Jonas Carpignano, the director whose previous film Mediterranea was huge success in Cannes, said that was a compliment as it was one of his favorite movies.Actor Koudous Seihon with Jonas Carpignano
Jonas Carpignano was also so charming and available to us all the night it screened at Wme, the agency which represents him!
The movie saddened me by its portrayal of gypsies, but was fascinating at the same time.
In A Ciambra, a small Romani (as the gypsies of Italy are labeled) community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region’s factions — the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani.
Jonas Carpignano was also so charming and available to us all the night it screened at Wme, the agency which represents him!
The movie saddened me by its portrayal of gypsies, but was fascinating at the same time.
In A Ciambra, a small Romani (as the gypsies of Italy are labeled) community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region’s factions — the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani.
- 11/17/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This week, we will be taking a look at Werner Herzog’s ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’. For the story behind the genesis of Canon Of Film, you can click here.
Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (2009)
Director: Werner Herzog
Screenplay: William Finkelstein
If there ever was a better example of how to show the old adage true that it’s not what the film is about but rather, how it’s about it… Abel Ferrara’s 1992 masterpiece ‘Bad Lieutenant‘, took place on the streets of New York and starred Harvey Keitel as a “bad lieutenant”. He wasn’t even given a name in the film. He did every drug he could, he pulled over women to sexually harass them, he screwed hookers, and gambled large amounts of money. In between, he tries to solve a crime, haphazardly involving the rape of a local nun. I met...
Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (2009)
Director: Werner Herzog
Screenplay: William Finkelstein
If there ever was a better example of how to show the old adage true that it’s not what the film is about but rather, how it’s about it… Abel Ferrara’s 1992 masterpiece ‘Bad Lieutenant‘, took place on the streets of New York and starred Harvey Keitel as a “bad lieutenant”. He wasn’t even given a name in the film. He did every drug he could, he pulled over women to sexually harass them, he screwed hookers, and gambled large amounts of money. In between, he tries to solve a crime, haphazardly involving the rape of a local nun. I met...
- 10/3/2017
- by David Baruffi
- Age of the Nerd
Aaron, Arik Devens, Scott Nye and Travis Trudell dig into the June Criterion announcements, Ingmar Bergman on FilmStruck, Canoa: A Shameful Memory, Werner Herzog versus Klaus Kinski, Iranian Cinema, and plenty of other topics including the latest news from Criterion and FilmStruck.
Episode Notes
1:50 – June Announcements
34:00 – Ingmar Bergman
43:00 – Canoa: A Shameful Memory
49:00 – Criterion Coming Soon & Misc News Items
53:00 – Short Takes (Burden of Dreams, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The House is Black, For Heaven’s Sake)
1:04:00 – FilmStruck
Episode Links Criterion – Ugetsu Criterion – They Live by Night Criterion – The Marseilles Trilogy Criterion – The Lodger Criterion – Straw Dogs Scott Reviews Ingmar Bergman’s The Devil’s Eye CriterionCast 173 – Ingmar Bergman’s Summer Interlude CriterionCast 174 – Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika CriterionCast 175 – Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night A History of Jazz Podcast Arik Reviews Canoa: A Shameful Memory Albert Brooks Tweet about Lost in America...
Episode Notes
1:50 – June Announcements
34:00 – Ingmar Bergman
43:00 – Canoa: A Shameful Memory
49:00 – Criterion Coming Soon & Misc News Items
53:00 – Short Takes (Burden of Dreams, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The House is Black, For Heaven’s Sake)
1:04:00 – FilmStruck
Episode Links Criterion – Ugetsu Criterion – They Live by Night Criterion – The Marseilles Trilogy Criterion – The Lodger Criterion – Straw Dogs Scott Reviews Ingmar Bergman’s The Devil’s Eye CriterionCast 173 – Ingmar Bergman’s Summer Interlude CriterionCast 174 – Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika CriterionCast 175 – Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night A History of Jazz Podcast Arik Reviews Canoa: A Shameful Memory Albert Brooks Tweet about Lost in America...
- 3/20/2017
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
Werner Herzog — world-renowned auteur, global treasure and cinematic spirit animal — appeared on “Conan” this week to discuss his new documentary “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World.” Like most exchanges involving the filmmaker, the interview contained a distinctly Herzogian anecdote — this one about breaking the law in order to make a film.
Read More: James Franco’s Movie Column: What Werner Herzog’s Documentaries Teach Us About Humanity
“There are too many things you cannot teach in school, and it’s way too long. Young people waste three, four years of their lives on the basics of filmmaking. You can learn in a week,” says Herzog, who founded the Rogue Film School (where he teaches students how to pick locks and forge shooting permits) and recently taught a MasterClass. He then recounts an experience he had while making “Fitzcarraldo,” production of which inspired Les Blank’s essential documentary “Burden of Dreams.
Read More: James Franco’s Movie Column: What Werner Herzog’s Documentaries Teach Us About Humanity
“There are too many things you cannot teach in school, and it’s way too long. Young people waste three, four years of their lives on the basics of filmmaking. You can learn in a week,” says Herzog, who founded the Rogue Film School (where he teaches students how to pick locks and forge shooting permits) and recently taught a MasterClass. He then recounts an experience he had while making “Fitzcarraldo,” production of which inspired Les Blank’s essential documentary “Burden of Dreams.
- 8/28/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Everyone has holes in his or her film education. No one has time to see everything, so there are always movies, filmographies, or sometimes entire genres that fall through the cracks. For me, one of those big holes in my film knowledge is missing out on the films of Werner Herzog. So this week I set out to change that by finally carving out time to watch one of his most famous movies, 1982's Fitzcarraldo, for the first time.
If you haven't seen it, I'll give a very brief rundown of the plot. Set in the early 1900s, the movie follows a man named known as Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) who is driven by a single-minded obsession: to bring the opera to the jungles of Peru. He acquires a parcel of land from the government with the intention of obtaining enough rubber from its trees to fund his dream. The rubber business is booming,...
If you haven't seen it, I'll give a very brief rundown of the plot. Set in the early 1900s, the movie follows a man named known as Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) who is driven by a single-minded obsession: to bring the opera to the jungles of Peru. He acquires a parcel of land from the government with the intention of obtaining enough rubber from its trees to fund his dream. The rubber business is booming,...
- 8/5/2016
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
In this special episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, March 15th, 2016.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Target: Star Wars The Force Awakens exclusive supplements are download-only News Kino Lorber: My Bodyguard, Sam Fuller’s Fixed Bayonets, Yellow Sky, The Legend of Hillbilly John, Daddy Long Legs Warner Archive: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Milestone: Losing Ground Vinegar Syndrome: Dolemite Misc Links Dan Trachtenberg’s post Delicious Library Links to Amazon Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip The Big Short Braddock: Missing in Action III Brooklyn Carol The Centurions: Part Two Burden of Dreams Game of Thrones: Season 5 Invasion U.S.A. Just Visiting Love The Manchurian Candidate Monster Dog My Boyfriend’s Back Rage of Honor Rocco and His Brothers Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Sun, Sand and Sweat 4 Pack...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Target: Star Wars The Force Awakens exclusive supplements are download-only News Kino Lorber: My Bodyguard, Sam Fuller’s Fixed Bayonets, Yellow Sky, The Legend of Hillbilly John, Daddy Long Legs Warner Archive: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Milestone: Losing Ground Vinegar Syndrome: Dolemite Misc Links Dan Trachtenberg’s post Delicious Library Links to Amazon Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip The Big Short Braddock: Missing in Action III Brooklyn Carol The Centurions: Part Two Burden of Dreams Game of Thrones: Season 5 Invasion U.S.A. Just Visiting Love The Manchurian Candidate Monster Dog My Boyfriend’s Back Rage of Honor Rocco and His Brothers Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine Sun, Sand and Sweat 4 Pack...
- 3/16/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big! Documentary” has an amazing weekend, starting with The Last Waltz on Friday. Following that are a new restoration of Vertov‘s Man with a Movie Camera (with live musical accompaniment) and a Maysles double-feature of Salesman and Gimme Shelter on Saturday. Sunday offers Errol Morris‘ Fast, Cheap & Out of Control,...
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big! Documentary” has an amazing weekend, starting with The Last Waltz on Friday. Following that are a new restoration of Vertov‘s Man with a Movie Camera (with live musical accompaniment) and a Maysles double-feature of Salesman and Gimme Shelter on Saturday. Sunday offers Errol Morris‘ Fast, Cheap & Out of Control,...
- 2/12/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
"Fitzcarraldo" is a legend in the history of film production — its infamous five-year production was arguably the most ambitious, troubled, and controversial ever recorded. Among many ludicrous feats, Werner Herzog demanded that a 320-ton steamship was carried over a mountain in Peru in order to depict the struggles of the film's protagonist, Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald. The film's trials and tribulations were documented in Les Blank's film "Burden of Dreams" and, later, in Herzog's own memoir, "Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo." 30 years later, filmmakers Sam Pressman, Luke Wigren and Harley Adams set out on the fiery trail of the "Fitzcarraldo" legacy. The question of what they sought remained entirely unanswered. Rather than have a plan, the filmmakers hoped to discover their film in the process of making it. It was an ambitious idea; its only solid premise...
- 12/12/2015
- by Emily Buder
- Indiewire
Jean Boenish and Base jumping pioneer Carl Boenish in Marah Strauch's soaring Sunshine Superman
A conversation with Marah Strauch on Carl Boenish turned to John Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths, starring Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman, German mountain films by Arnold Fanck with Luis Trenker and Leni Riefenstahl, Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Les Blank's Burden Of Dreams with a touch of Caspar David Friedrich and a beam of Donovan's Sunshine Superman.
The Sunshine Superman here is Carl Boenish, the founder of Base jumping. Breathtaking aerial footage shot by Boenish and his colleagues accompanies a glimpse into the development of the extreme sport, always close to the edge, head in the clouds. It is a film filled with light and air with a refreshing lack of cynicism. Director Strauch in interviews with Boenish's wife Jean explores how the private man, the scholar of Christian Science and the...
A conversation with Marah Strauch on Carl Boenish turned to John Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths, starring Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman, German mountain films by Arnold Fanck with Luis Trenker and Leni Riefenstahl, Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Les Blank's Burden Of Dreams with a touch of Caspar David Friedrich and a beam of Donovan's Sunshine Superman.
The Sunshine Superman here is Carl Boenish, the founder of Base jumping. Breathtaking aerial footage shot by Boenish and his colleagues accompanies a glimpse into the development of the extreme sport, always close to the edge, head in the clouds. It is a film filled with light and air with a refreshing lack of cynicism. Director Strauch in interviews with Boenish's wife Jean explores how the private man, the scholar of Christian Science and the...
- 5/27/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
While I was waiting for the screening of "Unfriended," I was sitting with some friends and the conversation turned to "Roar", as it often does if I'm involved right now. After all, if there is any film being released theatrically this year that deserves to be obsessed over, it is "Roar." This oddity from 1971 was rediscovered by Tim League and the rest of the amazing Drafthouse Films team, and they're releasing it in limited markets starting this Friday. I've written my review of the movie, and I mean it sincerely when I say that the pull quote they used from me in the trailer for the film is one of the proudest moments of my entire career writing about movies. What makes the film special? Why have I seen it five times and I'm still willing to drive from Anaheim to Sherman Oaks after a long day at Celebration just...
- 4/15/2015
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
Occasionally a making-of documentary comes along that transcends the format's more usual DVD-special-feature status. Eleanor Coppola's Hearts Of Darkness springs to mind, as does Les Blank's Burden Of Dreams. And now here's a new one to potentially join that select pantheon. Check out the trailer for Liv Corfixen's My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn, in which she documents her husband's fraught emotional journey bringing Only God Forgives to the screen.Much like Eleanor Coppola, it's clear that Corfixen's relationship to her subject gave her access to moments where any normal documentary crew would have told to push off for a while. Refn is generally a self-deprecating character in interviews anyway, but it's fascinating to see him quite this vulnerable. "I've been making this film for three years," he opines at one point, "and I have no idea what it's about."My LIfe Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn...
- 2/19/2015
- EmpireOnline
Park City, Utah – HollywoodChicago.com’s coverage of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival is far from over. This is the latest batch of reviews of movies that I’ve seen there. One film was a triumph while the other two are titles that I wouldn’t want to be stuck talking to at a party.
Don Verdean
‘Don Verdean’
Image credit: Sundance Institute
Running equal portions of dry goofiness and finite inspired storytelling, Jared Hess’ “Don Verdean” is a rewarding comedy about Biblical archaeology that’s necessary for times in which religious institutions crave sensationalism to get their good word across. For those who read “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” before its child author said he made it all up, or those who saw “Heaven Is For Real” as a type of precursor to their own death’s aftermath, this movie is for them. It’s a brilliant take...
Don Verdean
‘Don Verdean’
Image credit: Sundance Institute
Running equal portions of dry goofiness and finite inspired storytelling, Jared Hess’ “Don Verdean” is a rewarding comedy about Biblical archaeology that’s necessary for times in which religious institutions crave sensationalism to get their good word across. For those who read “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” before its child author said he made it all up, or those who saw “Heaven Is For Real” as a type of precursor to their own death’s aftermath, this movie is for them. It’s a brilliant take...
- 1/30/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Many people may know Les Blank most for his association with Werner Herzog, who he filmed while on the brink of creative madness in Burden of Dreams and earlier in Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, in which the notoriously true-to-his-word filmmaker indeed ate his shoe after having promised he’d do so if Errol Morris managed to finish his pet cemetery film, Gates of Heaven. But those ignoring the larger majority of Blank’s overflowing oeuvre would be sorely missing out on the jubilance of life that the quietly curious documentarian managed to strike on film with just his trusty 16mm Eclair, his appreciation for cultures of all kinds, and a fervent hunger for life. Sadly, Blank passed away in the spring of last year, just weeks before receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award and a restored retrospective of his body of work in Toronto at the Hot Docs Film Festival,...
- 12/2/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 25, 2014
Price: DVD $124.95, Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad.
The collector’s set Les Blank: Always for Pleasure provides a diverse survey of Blank’s vast output.
Gap Toothed Women, a 1987 film by Les Blank
The collection provides a diverse survey of the late filmmaker’s vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful “stinking rose” of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank’s short films.
Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed,...
Price: DVD $124.95, Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad.
The collector’s set Les Blank: Always for Pleasure provides a diverse survey of Blank’s vast output.
Gap Toothed Women, a 1987 film by Les Blank
The collection provides a diverse survey of the late filmmaker’s vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful “stinking rose” of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank’s short films.
Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed,...
- 8/25/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
I absolutely need to watch more films starring German actor Klaus Kinski. Outside of his Werner Herzog appearances I've only seen him in Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago and Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence and with IMDb crediting him in over 130 films, I've clearly missed a few. Kinski had a raw intensity Herzog clearly knew how to exploit, most notably in Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, films where the production was as harrowing if not more so than the stories they were telling making it hard to tell where Kinski the actor ends and his character begins. Within the confines of Herzog's 1999 documentary My Best Fiend - Klaus Kinski, we get a small glimpse of the man Herzog met when he was only a child as he returns to the now-renovated apartment where he first met Kinski. He takes us on a walking tour,...
- 5/13/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Ten years after they first worked together on Aguirre, the Wrath of God, writer/director Werner Herzog would reteam with star Klaus Kinski for the fourth time, though it wasn't originally envisioned that way. In fact, I doubt Herzog would say much of Fitzcarraldo was how he originally envisioned it. This ambitious piece of genius cinema would take he and Kinski back into the Peruvian jungle for a film that seems to have been cursed from the start, but even curses are meant to be broken given the proper enchantment. Kinski came aboard the project, replacing original star Jason Robards, playing the lead role of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (aka Fitzcarraldo), an opera-loving Irishman determined to bring the opera to the jungles of Peru. Alongside him was to be his assistant Wilbur (Mick Jagger), but as production was delayed and Robards fell ill with dysentery, the production almost fell to pieces.
- 5/6/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
This week wasn't as busy in terms of number of movies watched as last week. I caught two movies in theaters -- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Locke -- and at home I watched Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's documentary on the making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, and just last night I watched Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. As I've already said, I'm revisiting 16 of Werner Herzog's movies and reviewing each of them over the course of the next several weeks, this week I'm hoping to have reviews of both Fitzcarraldo and My Best Fiend, but I don't want to review either until I've finished reading Herzog's "Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo", but I'm finding it hard to fit in enough time to do just that. This coming week is going to be busy for me as screenings for the Seattle Film Festival get underway,...
- 5/4/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
What’s difficult about making this list is finding a balance between a successful Kubrickian film that either predates or pays homage to Kubrick and, for lack of a better term, is a ripoff. Now that we’ve hit the apex, it’s clear that these are, regardless of influence, quality films. What sets them apart is their ability to evoke Kubrick’s greatness (or inspire it), while delivering a stand-alone masterpiece. If Kubrick took the helm for any of these films, the result wouldn’t delineate too much. Still. Kubrick is a genius because he always kept us guessing.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
- 4/1/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
With Cheap Thrills finally arriving today on Movies On Demand, I’m willing to bet that a lot of you are planning to cuddle up tonight and descend into this movie's fast track to madness.
At its center Cheap Thrills shows an encounter between the conniving and the conflicted, focusing on two old acquaintances that force themselves to challenge each other with extreme acts of deplorable human behavior. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, and they win lots of money.
The day after the film’s raucous premiere at Fantastic Fest back in September, actors Pat Healy and Ethan Embry sat down with Dread Central to talk a little about the film.
Ph: Oh, Dread Central, the Rastafarian magazine, right?
DC: (laughs) That’s right. We only cover horror films from Jamaica.
Ee: (laughing) That’s probably one of your top shelves! That was really good,...
At its center Cheap Thrills shows an encounter between the conniving and the conflicted, focusing on two old acquaintances that force themselves to challenge each other with extreme acts of deplorable human behavior. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, and they win lots of money.
The day after the film’s raucous premiere at Fantastic Fest back in September, actors Pat Healy and Ethan Embry sat down with Dread Central to talk a little about the film.
Ph: Oh, Dread Central, the Rastafarian magazine, right?
DC: (laughs) That’s right. We only cover horror films from Jamaica.
Ee: (laughing) That’s probably one of your top shelves! That was really good,...
- 2/21/2014
- by Drew Tinnin
- DreadCentral.com
IFC miniseries "The Spoils of Babylon," produced by Funny or Die and premiering on January 9, is a deadpan parody of sprawling sagas like "The Thorn Birds" from the writer and the director of "Casa de Mi Padre." Tobey Maguire and Kristen Wiig star in the torrid, decades-spanning story of the Morehouse family, but the miniseries' fake backstory is turning out to be just as epic. In it, executive producer Will Ferrell will play Eric Jonrosh, the fictional author of the book on which the miniseries is supposedly based. Now IFC's released a "Hearts of Darkness"/"Burden of Dreams"-style behind-the-scenes video that's also made up. With production entering its third year, the director nowhere to be found and the financing in danger of being pulled, the actors and crew descend into madness and pretentiousness, and a documentary crew is there to capture it. Take a look at the two-part "To...
- 12/9/2013
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
The best movie culture writing from around the internet-o-sphere. Just leave a tab open for us, will ya? “What The Newsroom, The Bridge and Sons of Anarchy Have In Common: TV’s Mastermind Problem” — Alyssa Rosenberg laments that big bads have become human plot machines instead of true villains. “Breaking Bad and Looper Director Rian Johnson Shares His Top 10 Documentaries” — Burden of Dreams, Orson Wells and Agnes Varda earn a spot with a few surprises in tow. “The Biopic is Reborn For a New Generation” — Michael Cieply at the New York Times explores the new Jimi Hendrix movie All Is By My Side while wondering about the waning popularity of big music biopics. “For Criterion Consideration: Steven Spielberg’s 1941” — Sean Huchinson makes a difficult case for a formidable flop. “Is 12 Years a Slave an Oscar Lock? Please Don’t Ask” — Sam Adams on the critical shortcut codeword that lets us avoid conversations about real emotion.
- 9/10/2013
- by Scott Beggs
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
If you haven't read The New York Times' astonishing fly-on-the-wall piece about the making of crowd-funded Hollywood flick The Canyons, you should rectify that immediately. It's a micro-budget Hearts Of Darkness and Burden Of Dreams rolled into one sun-drenched La nightmare. There are budget crises, location crises, and Lindsay Lohan crises, all of which left director Paul Schrader clinging to his sanity like a mountain goat with particularly greasy hooves.Read it? Excellent. Now watch The Canyons' new trailer and marvel that an actual movie has emerged from the jaws of possible disaster. It's got plenty of Lohan philosophising and a Gus Van Sant cameo, although what exactly it's about remains cloudy.What we do know is that screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis has crafted a Less Than Zero-y piece which follows a group of twentysomethings who get into sex and crime in Los Angeles. Lohan stars alongside adult movie actor James Deen.
- 7/11/2013
- EmpireOnline
Why Watch? You may think you know Fitzcarraldo, but just you wait. New York-based animator Robin Frohardt, inspired by the legendary difficulties that plagued the production of Werner Herzog‘s Amazonian classic, decided to remake the film with one of the most easily pliable materials available: cardboard. The result is her three-minute trailer for Fitzcardboardaldo, a hardy paper journey into the jungle. Her recreation of a handful of shots from the original epic is spot on, with a few moments of humor tossed in for good measure. It’s impeccably made, down to the last twist of the ropes as the steamship is lifted atop a cardboard hill. However, it seems that even making this 3-minute homage was far from easy. Thus stricken with her own production difficulties, Frohardt went on to spoof Les Blank‘s Burden of Dreams as well. The result is a 4-minute “documentary” entitled The Corrugation of Dreams, in...
- 6/5/2013
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Documentaries about the production of a movie can go two ways. The film being filmed is completed without a hitch and the studio or distributor puts the “making of…” special on the DVD, or it’s a disastrous shoot and not exactly something executives want to flaunt in the form of a bonus feature. The latter can include docs on films that are miraculously finished (Burden of Dreams; Overnight; Hearts of Darkness) or unsurprisingly unfinished (Lost in La Mancha; It’s All True; the upcoming Death of “Superman Lives”). Either way, there’s usually good reason to isolate all that drama for a separately (or solely) released feature-length work. In the case of Unmade in China, the aim seems to have always been to cover a catastrophe. Director Gil Kofman (The Memory Thief) had already gone to the city of Xiamen to make the movie Case Sensitive, a YouTube-inspired thriller scripted by an American writer and intended...
- 4/20/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Watch: Werner Herzog Talks Ebert as More Than a Critic and Soldier of Cinema on Charlie Rose (Video)
Director Werner Herzog has had a sad last couple of weeks, with the loss of his friends film critic Roger Ebert and documentarian Les Blank. Below, Herzog's thoughts on Ebert on Charlie Rose (he joins critics A.O. Scott and Dana Stevens), with quote highlights. Here is a recent remembrance of Blank in the New Yorker (Toh! contributor Joe Leydon's interview with Blank in 1982 on "Burden of Dreams," his documentary on Herzog's chaotic Fitzcarraldo shoot, is here). Herzog, now 70, is one of those rare directors who possesses a brilliant talent for narrative and documentary filmmaking alike, and remains both prolific and an adventurous world-traveler in his older age. His most recent big-screen entry, "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga," which he co-directed with Dmitry Vasyukov, is an absorbing, season-by-season chronicle of hunters and trappers in the Siberian Taiga; alas, it had a run so brief, most cinephiles probably blinked and missed it.
- 4/15/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Film-maker behind intimate, rounded portraits of musicians including Dizzy Gillespie and Lightnin' Hopkins
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
- 4/12/2013
- by Tony Russell
- The Guardian - Film News
Les Blank's most widely known work was his remarkable documentary Burden of Dreams (1982) in which he followed the hazardous and chaotic filming of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Herzog's grandiose screwball epic tells of the attempt of an eccentric Irish rubber baron called Fitzgerald (Fitzcarraldo to the natives) to establish an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. For this purpose, he has to haul a massive steamboat over a mountain. "If I should abandon this film I should be a man without dreams … I live my life or end my life with the project," Herzog tells Blank's objective camera.
Blank's ethnological approach lets the viewer decide whether we should admire Herzog's tenacity and daring or see him as a deluded European confronting and disturbing tribal existence. In fact, one could argue that Burden of Dreams is more interesting and perceptive than the long haul of Fitzcarraldo.
"Burden of Dreams was nothing...
Blank's ethnological approach lets the viewer decide whether we should admire Herzog's tenacity and daring or see him as a deluded European confronting and disturbing tribal existence. In fact, one could argue that Burden of Dreams is more interesting and perceptive than the long haul of Fitzcarraldo.
"Burden of Dreams was nothing...
- 4/12/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
News.
Above: documentary filmmaker Les Blank—perhaps best known for his two incredible Herzog-centric films Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe and Burden of Dreams—has passed away at the age of 77. It feels like the cinema is losing too many of its soldiers lately. In the past week, the sheer volume of impassioned remembrances of Roger Ebert has been overwhelming. David Hudson has done an admirable job of centralizing a great many of them, and rather than try to share them here I recommend heading over to Keyframe Daily and using it as a springboard (if you haven't already). Also of note: Roger Ebert's website has been lovingly redesigned in his memory. Now online from Lumière, an array of lists and writings on "Highlights" of 2012 from various contributors including Ken Jacobs, our own Daniel Kasman, David Phelps, Gina Telaroli, Boris Nelepo, and more. An amazing series begins next month...
Above: documentary filmmaker Les Blank—perhaps best known for his two incredible Herzog-centric films Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe and Burden of Dreams—has passed away at the age of 77. It feels like the cinema is losing too many of its soldiers lately. In the past week, the sheer volume of impassioned remembrances of Roger Ebert has been overwhelming. David Hudson has done an admirable job of centralizing a great many of them, and rather than try to share them here I recommend heading over to Keyframe Daily and using it as a springboard (if you haven't already). Also of note: Roger Ebert's website has been lovingly redesigned in his memory. Now online from Lumière, an array of lists and writings on "Highlights" of 2012 from various contributors including Ken Jacobs, our own Daniel Kasman, David Phelps, Gina Telaroli, Boris Nelepo, and more. An amazing series begins next month...
- 4/10/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Filmmaker Les Blank has died of bladder cancer, at the age of 77. Blank graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans before moving west and devoting his life to documenting the pleasures of life. He spent most of his long career making movies about music or food, though his best-known work may have been Burden Of Dreams (1982), a making-of documentary that helped shaped the public image of another maverick filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Blank was adrift in his early twenties when he saw Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and decided to dedicate himself to the art of film. In ...
- 4/8/2013
- avclub.com
Berkeley, Calif. — Les Blank, an acclaimed documentary maker who focused his camera on cultural corners ranging from blues music, to garlic lovers, to shoe-eating artists, died Sunday at age 77, his son said.
Blank died at his home in Berkeley, Calif. nearly a year after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, Harrod Blank said.
Blank's 42 films earned him a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.
"I think he's a national treasure," filmmaker Taylor Hackford, president of the Directors Guild of America, told the New York Times. "Although his films are not well known at the moment, they'll take their place"
The Florida-born Blank's early documentaries focused on musicians, including 1965's "Dizzy Gillespie" and "The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins," a portrait of the Texas bluesman that won Blank his first wide renown.
He shifted to food with documentaries like 1980's "Garlic is as Good as 10 Mothers," and 2007's "All in This Tea.
Blank died at his home in Berkeley, Calif. nearly a year after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, Harrod Blank said.
Blank's 42 films earned him a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.
"I think he's a national treasure," filmmaker Taylor Hackford, president of the Directors Guild of America, told the New York Times. "Although his films are not well known at the moment, they'll take their place"
The Florida-born Blank's early documentaries focused on musicians, including 1965's "Dizzy Gillespie" and "The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins," a portrait of the Texas bluesman that won Blank his first wide renown.
He shifted to food with documentaries like 1980's "Garlic is as Good as 10 Mothers," and 2007's "All in This Tea.
- 4/8/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Filmmaker Les Blank died today at age 77 from bladder cancer. He is best known for directing Burden of Dreams, a feature film on the making of Werner Herzog‘s Fitzcarraldo. Roger Ebert, who we lost to cancer just days ago, called it “one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie.” Two years earlier, Blank made another film with Herzog as the subject. It’s wonderful title is Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. Probably not coincidentally, it also involved one of Ebert’s favorite films of all time, Errol Morris‘s directorial debut, Gates of Heaven. The 20-minute short film is, of course, literally named. Blank shows us Herzog cooking up his shoe and then eating it during a public event, part on stage at the Uc Theater in Berkeley in front of a large crowd and part at a famous Berkeley restaurant called Chez Panisse. Why...
- 4/8/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
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